Hasta La Ideas

Design and motion studio ManvsMachine has deconstructed Nike’s iconic Air Max shoe for a new campaign promoting the Air Max 90 range.

ManvsMachine was asked to design a campaign showcasing the individual features of each shoe in the new Air Max collection, which is the first to combine Nike’s Air, Lunar and Flyknit technologies.

Using Cinema 4D animation software, V-Ray rendering and a distinctive “fractured-flow” edit style, the studio created a series of CG films in which various features of the shoes have been abstracted and animated, showcasing a range of textures and the most recognisable design elements of the Air Max:

“The films are full CG, and the production process was handled in-house in our Shoreditch studio, from creating accurate 3D models of the shoes and wrapping them in photographed textures, to designing, building and animating sculptural elements and environments…once underway, this process took about three months,” explains studio founder Mike Alderson.

ManvsMachine also worked on in-store graphics with retail design agency Hotel Creative, creating a series of 3D printed sculptures and a simple graphic system to illustrate the different features of each trainer:

“The sculptures were all 3D printed and sprayed in London [sizes range from 305mm to 800mm]. We created the objects in Cinema4D and handed them over to…Hotel Creative, who integrated them into the retail design,” explains Alderson.

Films will be used online, in-store and in outdoor advertising, and the installations and graphics are being rolled out in stores nationwide.

It’s another slick campaign from ManvsMachine, who created a charming animation last year to promote Nike’s Re-Use a Shoe initiative, in which worn out Nike trainers are ground down into a new material that can be used to make surfaces for playing courts, tracks and fields.